Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Jan.[January] 18, 1836.

AN ACT to establish a State Road from Danville to Ottowa.
1

Commissioners appointed.

When and where to meet.

Duty.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Abraham Henkle, of Vermillion county; John Manning, of Champaign county; Fairchild Weed, of McLean county, and James B. Campbell, of La Salle county, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners, to view, survey, and locate a road from Danville, in Vermillion county, to Ottowa, in La Salle county. Said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at the house of Amos Galusha, in the town of Danville, on some day between the first days of May and October next, and proceed to survey, mark, and locate said road. Where said road shall pass through a prairie country, said commissioners shall cause to be erected suitable posts, within one-half mile of each other, and shall return to the county commissioners’ court of each county through which said road shall pass, a plat of said road, designating therein the courses and distances; which said survey shall be filed and preserved in said courts.

A state road.

Compensation.

Sec. 2. The said road, when located as aforesaid, shall be a state road,2 and shall be opened and kept in repair, as other state roads are. Said commissioners shall receive, each, two dollars per day, for every day’s service, in making, surveying, and locating said road, which shall be paid in equal proportions by the county commissioners’ courts of the several counties through which said road shall pass.

Act repealed.

Sec. 3. That an act to locate a road from Danville to Ottowa, approved January 18th, 1833, be, and the same is hereby repealed.3

Approved, Jan. 18, 1836.

1On December 31, 1836, William Fithian in the House of Representatives presented the petition of several citizens of Vermilion County and other counties, regarding a state road. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Fithian of the select committee introduced HB 208 in the House on January 1, 1836. The House passed the bill on January 4. The Senate passed the bill on January 16. On January 18, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 184, 197, 220, 356, 370, 372; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 172, 274-75, 287, 288.
(Vandalia, Ill.: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835), Journal of the Senate, at the Second Session of the Ninth General Assembly, of the State of Illinois, Begun and Held in Pursuance of the Proclamation of the Governor, in the Town of Vandalia, December 7, 1835 (Vandalia, Ill.: J. W. Sawyer, 1835),

2State roads were those public roads established or designated by the General Assembly and usually crossed county lines. Only the General Assembly could establish, alter, or abandon state roads, until 1840 and 1841, when the General Assembly gave counties the authority to alter or to abandon state roads upon petition by a majority of voters in the area of the change.
An Act concerning Public Roads, sec. 9; An Act Authorizing Commissioners’ Courts to Alter, Change, and Relocate State Roads; An Act concerning Public Roads.

3In 1837, the General Assembly passed an act repealing this act.
“An Act to Locate a Road from Danville to Ottawa,” 18 January 1833, Laws, of a Private Nature, State of Illinois (1833), 175-76.